Joris from SchoolNet Namibia won the Hafkin Prize a few years ago, and is doing some really nifty things wiring and creating FLOSS computing centres in schools across the country. They're working on building an extensive wireless network, with plans to connect some 640 schools by end-2007. Born in Kisangani, (Democratic Republic of) Congo, raised and variously educated in Burundi, Holland, Nigeria and South Africa, Joris Komen was a curator of birds and IT manager at the National Museum of Namibia, and has spent many years working on endemic avifauna of southern Africa, focusing on bio-energetics, behavior, bio-acoustics and systematics research. Much of this work has been published in local and international journals. Currently Joris is the Executive Director of Namibia SchoolNet. SchoolNet is heavily oriented towards Gnu/Linux, and Joris wrote an open letter to Microsoft some years ago describing glaring problems with vendor lock-in and hardware limitations that using Microsoft-"donated" software would cause for Namibian schools. This letter received huge attention in the International press, and Joris continues to write stimulating comments on ICTs in development in Africa - to read some of his biting "bad hair day tails" visit his blog - tatejoris.blogspot.com.

http://www.schoolnet.na/projects/
http://www.schoolnet.na/news/stories/msft20021111.html